Firefighters help Aaron Gardener, center, out of a 20-foot well he fell down Wednesday afternoon. Photo by: Bill Lavallie

"All is well that ends well," was the Shakespearean quote that came from the mouth of a firefighter Wednesday after he helped rescue a man who'd fallen down a 20-foot well.

Just a half-hour before, Donna Ramber, the former owner of La Donna's Market Place in Sutter Creek, and her adult son, Aaron Gardener, were enjoying the nice September weather as they did some yard work around their old farm house in Drytown. Ramber's husband, Jerry, had purchased the rustic home a few years before for a great price. The only catch was Jerry had to buy it "as is," without getting a home inspection.

In all of the time Jerry owned the home, he and Donna assumed that a small, rickety outbuilding down the hill was a tool shed. Donna had never gone inside it before. Around 1 p.m., as Gardener was helping Donna with yard work, he ventured inside. In the dim shadows of the room, his feet began to move across a creaking wooden floor. Suddenly that floor collapsed under him and he dropped more than 20 feet into a well.

Because the well was extremely narrow, Gardener's velocity was slowed by hitting the sides of it repeatedly on his way down.

About 10 minutes after Gardener disappeared from Donna's view, she began to hear him screaming for help. Donna was shaken to discover Gardener at the bottom of a well she didn't even know existed. "I knew he was all right because I could hear him talking," she said of her son. "It didn't sound like he was in too much pain."

The Sutter Creek Fire Department soon arrived, along with CAL FIRE, American Legion EMTs and the Amador County Sheriff's Office. Sutter Creek firefighters managed to help Gardener self-rescue by lowering a hard hat, fire ladder and rope down the hole. When a dazed Gardener was finally helped into the light, he looked around at the numerous emergency responders and mumbled, "Wow."

EMTs examined Gardener. Though much of his upper body was covered in deep scrapes, scratches and friction burns, he appeared to have no broken bones or head trauma.

"He was pretty lucky," said Sutter Creek Fire Chief Butch Martin. "You see people go to the coroner's office over falling off 8-foot ladders. This guy fell over 20 feet straight down."

Martin added that the fact Gardener sustained limited injuries and was conscious made the rescue attempt a far better prospect for his men. "If he'd have gotten seriously hurt down there it would have taken us hours to get him out," Martin observed. "It would have been a whole different deal."